Breaking History takes readers inside debates in the Oval Office, double-crosses at the United Nations, tense meetings in Arab palaces, high-stakes negotiations, and the daily barrage of leaks, false allegations, investigations, and West Wing infighting. Kushner details Washington's intense resistance to change and reveals how he broke through the stalemates of the past.
It’s a title that, in its thoroughgoing lack of self-awareness, matches this book’s contents ... He betrays little cognizance that he was in demand because, as a landslide of other reporting has demonstrated, he was in over his head, unable to curb his avarice, a cocky young real estate heir who happened to unwrap a lot of Big Macs beside his father-in-law ... Breaking History is an earnest and soulless — Kushner looks like a mannequin, and he writes like one — and peculiarly selective appraisal of Donald J. Trump’s term in office. Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies, the breaking of laws and norms, the flirtations with dictators, the comprehensive loss of America’s moral leadership ... This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes ... Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo ... The tone is college admissions essay ... Kushner, poignantly, repeatedly beats his own drum ... A therapist might call these cries for help ... The bulk of Breaking History — at nearly 500 pages, it’s a slog — goes deeply into the weeds ... What a queasy-making book to have in your hands.
Kushner’s new memoir, Breaking History, does read like one long résumé. Kushner has a way of assuring the reader of his accomplishments that makes you doubt everything he says ... As Trump administration memoirs go—and I’ve read a ton of them—this one is pretty dull, with dashes of the obligatory score-settling and self-justification but precious little color ... He has no eye for character or flair for dish ... If this sounds a bit pathetic, it is. Breaking History features the many confident pronouncements of someone who can never quite convince you that he actually possesses any true confidence ... Kushner’s dishonesty about so much of the history of the Trump administration casts a shadow over the accomplishments he claims.
It sits at the intersection of spin, absolution and self-aggrandizement ... In Breaking History, Kushner selectively parcels out dirt ... Kushner delivers a mixture of news and cringe.
